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Have you ever had Sugar on Snow?

We celebrated Read Across America and World Reading Day by inviting several people around the world to read to us. Each day, we used Skype to connect with a new reader. We listened to new stories and made new friends. We even heard a story that we knew. Our friend, Mrs. Marrinan stayed up late to read to us. It was good to meet Mrs. Cassidy. We read her blog and have wondered what she looks like. Ms. von Wahlde surprised us by sending us the book she read. We enjoyed our new stories so much that Mrs. Knee bought most of the books for our class. Now we can read the books whenever we want and have good memories of our skype calls.

When Mrs. Marrinan came to visit in December, she brought us several books from Australia. We became interested in Australian animals and have been learning about them through books, websites and even with the help of Mrs. M and the Gems. We have a wiki that we used for our online information - check it out here. We shared our learning with our families on curriculum night. We want to share our learning with you, too.

We have had a wonderful winter of snow play. We've hiked in the woods, rolled snowballs to make snowmen and even had lots of snow for sliding. After our recent blizzard and some warmer temperatures, we had the perfect snow for building. Can you guess what we made? Here are some pictures to give you a hint....

Do you need more hints? We worked very hard packing the snow in the recycle bins and carrying them over to the building spot where Big Jack and Omar were waiting.

Did you guess? If you still don't know, we think this video will help you. Please tell us what you think.

Wednesday was our 100th day of school. We've been preparing for the 100th day of school by practicing our oral counting skills. Many children can count to 100 and the rest of the class continues to practice. We also have been making groups of ten and counting by 10's to 100. Last week, we worked on a bulletin board display that combined the 100th day event with Valentine's Day. After folding paper and cutting out more than 400 hearts, we used them to make 100 Valentine "Cards". Each child wrote 5 numbers in sequence until we reached 100. There have been several compliments about our display and many people stop to look a bit closer. Each square is a work of art. We are very pleased with the results.

We are very lucky to have lots of outdoor places to play at our school. We are also lucky that we can take the time to play and enjoy the outdoors. It was a beautiful day to be outside and the snow was just right for making things. Jack Hutchinson, our wonderful Thursday afternoon volunteer joined us as we worked together to create some amazing things in the snow. As you watch our movie, look for the ways we are working together and helping friends. We learn how to cooperate and how to be friends when we take time to build and create. Look for our smiles too. We were having fun!

Our big buddies met with Mrs. Campelia, our physical education teacher to learn about activities that would be good to do with 5 and 6 year olds. They planned wonderful activities to do with us. Some of the big buddies showed us things that they can do with the materials. It was like a show. It was a fun afternoon. We especially like the parachute. We are wondering what we will do next time when we get together with our big buddies.